Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost vol 3 by kaori yuki

Belle has followed the Beast into the lair of la Médium, and she's come face to face with the villain who carted off her mother all those years ago. Belle learns more about the history between the Beast and la Médium, and the Beast denies none of it. He savagely asked la Médium to kill his parents so that he could ascend to the throne, but when la Médium found out he was just using her for her powers, she lashed out jealously and cured the Beast and his people. She then swore to find a face he could fall in love with so that he would finally reciprocate her feelings. Belle gets further entangled in the stand-off between the two, and the Beast discovers there is a spy amongst his subjects who has been feeding la Médium valuable information!

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This volume ramps up the romance that the author admits has been more so in the background thus far. Given how much this is taking from the original Beauty and the Beast narrative, I'm not surprised to find la Médium also has feelings for the prince the Beast used to be. Now, this guy has THREE women chasing after him, although one is incased in crystal (minor inconvenience). There is also some lovely development of the Idole character, Isolde, so I hope to get to know more of the castle folk in future volumes. Yuki has beautifully brought to life her rendition of this classic fairy tale, and has managed to invoke some strong emotional ties for me already in the first three volumes. I'm definitely hooked on this series, and other readers who like fantasy romances, like The Ancient Magus' Bride, might also enjoy this series.

​Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2

Publisher: Kodansha 
Publication Date: December 21, 2021​
ISBN: 9781646512942 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Folklore, Fantasy, Suspense, Kodansha